Achtung Baby

harbour view

2008-10-11T22:42:00.002+02:00

whiteshell provincial park

2008-10-11T22:20:00.005+02:00

canoeing on dorothy lake

mike & moni

sisters

indian pipe - a chorophyll free plant

roman holiday

2008-10-11T21:03:00.008+02:00

Duisburg Zoo

2008-10-07T16:57:00.006+02:00

August Highlights

2008-10-07T16:26:00.005+02:00

Muenster

Mennonite Studies I: the cages in Muenster

Muenster

A castle with a MOAT!

leckere Brombeeren

Dick und faul geniesst Guy das Leben.

"Treu bis in den Tod"

Staffelberg

2008-08-14T14:48:00.002+02:00

Ausflug #2 to Staffelberg

Christoph looking up at Staffelberg

View from the top

Ausflug

2008-08-14T12:41:00.010+02:00

Took a day to do some family history research and see if I could track down two little boys whose farm my Opa worked on 60 years ago. That part of the mission was successful, although I quickly realised the dialect in blink-and-you-miss-it (we nearly did) German villages means they are no place for non-native speakers. Nevertheless, some stories were told, addresses exchanged, and my Opa very pleased to have reconnected with this part of his past.

We opted to stay off the Autobahn and stopped in a couple of idyllic German towns on our way back to Bamberg.

Pottenstein

Sommerrodelbahn

Gößweinstein

Flowers

2008-07-25T11:53:00.005+02:00

Just because I like them.

Schneewittchen roses and Bamberg in the background. I love this.

2006 Flashback

2008-07-25T11:23:00.004+02:00

Fussballfieber hit Germany hard this past June, much like it did when they played host to the World Cup two years ago. This time around it was the Bergtour in Austria and Switzerland that led to German flags being hung from windows and cars and painted on faces. The Euro Championship is considered by many to be an even more prestigious title to win than being crowned world champions because the competition overall is much stiffer.

It was a shaky start for the German national team. Slow and not always steady they made it to the final against Spain. While silver isn't bad, it isn't gold. I am by no means an expert, but from the calibre of play displayed, Spain did deserve to win. My complaint: that goal was not the kind of goal that should lead to being crowned European champions. And sucking your thumb after you score a goal?! Eww.

Here are a few pictures of happier times, namely Germany's win over Turkey.

Christoph took the other pictures. This is what I saw...

Sorry about that terrible light in the middle, but
this is what the streets were like.

A Weekend in Oberbayern

2008-07-25T10:43:00.010+02:00

I've become awfully good at neglecting this blog, but it's not like I usually write much anyway. Here are a few pictures of Munich and Tegernsee. Maybe more will follow.

Our hosts, Klaus and Ulrieke

ruhrpott revisited

2008-05-17T16:24:00.004+02:00

not quite ready...

okay, now we're ready!

am see

alle meine entchen...

im garten

winnipeg in march. ugh...

2008-04-27T17:23:00.000+02:00

march is the absolute worst time of the year in the prairies. winter is mostly over and all you're left with is dirty snow and the 'it's too warm to wear my parka and too cold to wear my spring jacket' dilemma. this march was made a little bit better by the spring break my school practicum afforded me, and a lot better thanks to a three week visit from christoph.

leo mol + christoph

bandit playing the snow

checking out her newly arrived little brother

vying for some attention

winnipeg art gallery

good ol' wesley hall at the u of w

a frozen butterscotch river

st. boniface cathedral

a highly controversial and therefore hidden statue of louis riel

the kiddies take over the ice at the mts centre

i'm a happy camper at one of my favourite places in the whole world

meine blumen

2008-03-14T02:39:00.004+01:00

mama thiessen's geburtstagfeier

2008-03-09T00:06:00.004+01:00

things to do instead of studying

2008-02-24T03:53:00.007+01:00

1. listen to tegan and sara
2. upload pictures onto a long-neglected blog

these pics are all from christmas and in completely random order. it was such a good christmas!

the lovely celia & alex

smartwool socks + hardwoods + camera in hand

the legislative building looking very festive

the kind of winter day i love

looks like he's sneaking something out of mom's purse

and out come the accordians (yes, plural)

big sis & mike

little brother & danielle

christoph being frech!

the thiessen tech guy

i love this

tobogganing!

adorable

everybody sing along now: i hate winnipeg...

a little mud on the tires

2007-10-26T21:03:00.000+02:00

um, here's a post from over a month ago. i was right in the middle of my semester and never got around to uploading the photos, but finally did it today. here you are!

after far too much work and far too little fun, I got a little reprieve in the form of a little dose of country! fans of the genre should know by the title who i saw, but those who have yet to see joy that country music can bring, i'll just tell you i saw brad paisley. loved it. he buttered the audience up with talk of tim horton's and played my fav (see title), stephen's pick, and lots more sing-along country delights. good wine, old friends, fun tunes. Thank you to the schmidt's!

a dose of canadiana

2007-10-06T22:29:00.000+02:00

a little canadian thanksgiving special, brought to you by the good ol' manitoba boys known as the weakerthans. you can't not love this song if you've ever lived through a canadian winter. seriously, it's a song about curling and you can't tell me that doesn't make you smile. 50/50 draws, sheet, end, hack, hurry, hurry hard...i love it. hope you do too. happy thanksgiving!

Tournament Of Hearts

Now the lounge is full of farmers for the 7:30 draw
Teammates all left before they had to buy a round
When they pull the 50/50 and I've lost again, I'll go
Maybe have one more brown one for the snowy road
All the championship banners going yellow on the wall
And my name when it gets closer to last call

So Elvira brings my bottle, hold it up and let it bend
Figures of two rinks battling an extra end
And I'm peeling off the label as they peel a corner guard
Dance down the sheet to the tune of "Hurry, Hurry Hard"
And my popcorn squeaks with the question, wonders why I'm not at home
Where you wait beside a silent telephone, doodle circles within circles all alone
Have to stop myself from climbing on the table full of empties to yell:

"Why, why can't I draw right up to what I want to say?"
"Why can't I ever stop where I want to stay?"
I slide right through the day, I'm always throwing hack weight
Right off, no never never ever ever
Right off, no never never ever never
Right off, no never never never ever
Right off, no never ever never ever
Right off, no never never ever ever
Right off, no never never ever never
Right off, no never never never ever
Right off, no never ever never ever

Now the senior bonspiel winners circa 1963
Are all staring, glaring disapprovingly
From their frame in that old photograph
And I know you're out their waiting
For an answer I can't give you
so tell me,

"Why, Why can't I draw right up to what I want to say?"
"Why can't I ever stop when I want to stay?"
We roll right through our years
We rip right through our months
We slide through our days
I'm always throwing hack weight
Right off, no never never ever ever
Right off, no never never ever never
Right off, no never ever never ever
Right off

http://www.theweakerthans.org/

http://www.myspace.com/theweakerthans

sisters + a brother

2007-09-01T23:04:00.001+02:00

chris mentally prepares for the sister sandwich...

sisters

2007-09-01T00:23:00.000+02:00

thiessen's summer bbq

2007-08-28T11:13:00.000+02:00

a sunny end of summer day and an 8 year old's birthday brought all the thiessens together for a little bbq. i ate a burger for the first time in i think 10 years (thank you, chef carlos!), and young and old alike had fun wearing glow stick eyeglasses.

the birthday girl's crown

mama and papa thiessen with hilarious little karissa

pauls and thiessen sisters
bandit and xuka get to know each other

the braun sisters
mike and moni in from edmonton
chris and danielle

celia and bina looking cute as ever

the cousins

even onkel helmud gets in on the fun :)

inspired by germany

2007-08-18T00:55:00.000+02:00

august in winnipeg means the stereotype perpetuating 'cultural celebration' known as folklorama. off the german society i went with alana and adrian, my favourite german connection in winnipeg. we learned about the sorbians, a slavic ethnic minority in germany, and were also told that german dialects are so different from province to province (yes, germany apparently has provinces and not states!) that germans can't even understand each other. the three of us listened politely, then exchanged somewhat confused looks when we could finally make our getaway. even after finding out that adrian is german and alana and i have both lived in lovely deutschland, the woman telling us all about german provinces and dialects still seemed to think we were just a bunch of clueless canucks or something. keine ahnung!

this is the only thing about the pavilion that actually reminded me of germany

heimkehr

2007-08-16T02:51:00.001+02:00

from my last meal in germany to my first one in winnipeg. maple barbequed salmon and wild rice. my favourite. no pics of the culinary delights, but got a couple of kleiner bruder chris, the adorable danielle, and their ankle-biting boxer, bandit.

update

2007-08-16T01:47:00.001+02:00

SOO, now that i finally have my computer back, i guess i can update. been gone from germany two weeks today. feels much longer. been in winnipeg for about a week and a half. my two jobs are doing their best to keep me busy, and the car on the driveway is doing it's best to keep me lazy. i had a little boy with training wheels make fun of me while riding mama thiessen's vintage bike (which opa nicknamed 'die alte dame') to the post office. i live on the completely flat prairies, yet everyone here seems to think they need a mountain bike. apparently this is already ingrained into the minds of four year olds. funny. it's been good to see my girls and the wide open spaces all around this little town i both love and hate. i am enjoying ridiculous amounts of peanut butter and the new starbucks in the neighbourhood immensely. i am missing the sights, sounds, tastes and people of bamberg even more. *sigh* on that note, here are some pics of my last few days in the ever so lovely bamberg.

boys' night out + ang. the other girls joined later. and by later i mean after i went home to bed because i had to work the next day.

meisterkoch christoph cooks up my last german dinner:

selbstverstaendlich it was bratwurst, brezeln, and beer. feinschmecker, i know.

the last supper

2007-07-31T14:26:00.001+02:00

one last dinner and wine at the best restaurant ever with meine besten. oh, how i'll miss rehashing all the dirty details of our trips with you kids, not to mention all our bamberg adventures. k-train and priscilla, just forget how you met me, ok? shawn, man oh man do i owe you for dealing with car sick ang in ireland, and then dealing with i-feel-like-i'm-dying ang in turkey. but there are good memories, too. salzburg - complete with jailbirds and ballerinas ;) - got the ball rolling in style. where the party cup had its beginning, non? good times, good times. and then there was vienna featuring zoolander and that other disney character whose name i can never remember, and probably couldn't spell even if i remembered. and who could forget portugal. *sigh* how many times did we see that one video?!? and do you guys know i filmed you doing the fatboy slim dance? yeah, it's as bad as you think it is. sun burns, aloe gel, skippy peanut butter, ketchup chips and oh so many laughs. i will miss you so, so much. why do all good things come to an end?

picnic

2007-07-31T13:59:00.000+02:00

i love reformhaus. i can buy ang-friendly bread and crackers and pizza crust and soy milk at reformhaus and that makes me happy. yes, plain crackers make me happy. i almost cried when i got back from turkey (i.e. hell) and saw crackers in my cupboard. anyways, i also noticed that reformhaus carries gluten-free german-style pretzels and thought it fitting to at least try the oktoberfest staple before i leave (and while we're on the topic of leaving - don't ask me about it. it sucks. i don't want to leave. i don't want to go back to school. i don't want to move back to winnipeg even though i love the city. yes, i want to see my best girls and my family, but in all honesty i would prefer a short holiday there as opposed to living there another two years. there, that's all i'm saying on the topic because it is depressing). back to better things, namely german bread. so, i bought the over-priced aufbackbrezeln, and even splurged on €3 gluten-free beer to make my experience complete. yup, had a little bier and brezel picnic and it was lovely. sun was shining, company was delightful, warm, doughy pretzels were eaten, cold beer was sipped. here's the photographic evidence:

hochzeitsfeier!

2007-07-21T16:38:00.001+02:00

remember the sweetest, smiley italian from the alte generation? well, guess who got married last weekend! if you were one of the alte generation, you also know fc nürnberg's biggest fan and former erasmus tutor, kathrin. kathrin and michi drove down to italy for the wedding, and posted pics of the feier here. congratulations miriam and stefano!

we'll pick up some mango juice...

2007-07-17T23:10:00.001+02:00

reminiscing about the best vacation ever over €1 beer in the sauna best known as fäßla stube.

rosengarten

2007-07-09T15:49:00.000+02:00

enjoying one of the lovely bamberg attractions on a sunny summer day. think the average 15°c weather has taken its toll on the roses.

still making music

2007-07-07T13:05:00.000+02:00

taking me all the way back to my pre-uni days, backpacking around the UK and listening to 'turn' for the first time, travis is back with a brand new album. glad it's a little less i'm-mad-at-the-world than 12 memories. fran healy's voice floods me with memories of people and places i haven't seen in ages and still makes me want to sing along.

here's the boy with no name's first single:

closer

I've had enough of this parade
I'm thinking of the words to say
We open up unfinished parts
Broken up, it’s so mellow

And when I see you, then I know it will be next to me
And when I need you, then I know you will be there with me
I’ll never leave you

Just need to get closer, closer
Lean on me now
Lean on me now
Closer, closer
Lean on me now
Lean on me now

Keep waking up without you here
Another day, another year
I seek the truth we set apart
Thinking of a second chance

And when I see you, then I know it will be next to me
And when I need you, then I know you will be there with me
I’ll never leave you

Just need to get closer, closer
Lean on me now
Lean on me now
Closer, closer
Lean on me now
Lean on me now

And when I see you, then I know it will be next to me
And when I need you, then I know you will be there with me
I’ll never leave you

Just need to be closer, closer
Lean on me now
Lean on me now
Closer, closer
Lean on me now
Lean on me now

Closer, closer... closer, closer

canada day!

2007-07-04T11:44:00.000+02:00

chocolate and that beautiful flag first thing in the morning - you know it was a good day! finally some sunshine in deutschland, which we enjoyed by spending all day outdoors. first we headed over to msv duisburg's first practise of the season, then we checked out some of christoph’s old mülheim haunts.

wasserrosen im MüGa

spiegel der wahrheit? hmm, not sure how i feel about that...

a vonderful goot game

2007-07-04T10:50:00.000+02:00

if you get the title, you know what we were playing!

gasometer

2007-07-04T01:39:00.000+02:00

former gas storage facility in oberhausen which now hosts a variety of exhibitions. when we visited, satellite images from around the world were being displayed. took the elevator the hundred-something metres up, but the wind and rain meant my hands stayed in my pockets and therefore my camera stayed safely tucked away in its case.

an image of the land of ice and snow. a little taste of home...

landschaftspark nord

2007-07-04T01:31:00.000+02:00

an old steel mill converted into a park. trees, an open air cinema, a scuba diving tank, banquet halls, a restaurant, a disco, and a youth hostel now grace the grounds of this piece of ruhrpott history.

Köln

2007-07-03T16:43:00.000+02:00

true patriot love

2007-07-03T15:49:00.000+02:00

here’s a little canada day special. yeah, i know i’m late, but i only heard grant lawrence’s pick for track of the day yesterday. love grant lawrence, love joel plaskett, love a little canuck pride, especially when I’m so far away from the land of northern lights, 8-month winters, open skies and cabin trips. here’s what mr lawrence had to say about the song: “extremely canadian, but often misinterpreted…if you actually listen closely to the lyrics you’ll discover a dark, cynical subject matter about the loss of canadian identity, the homogenisation of north american culture and suffering in the shadow of a massive, all-encompassing neighbour. ‘getting into bed seemed easy enough, getting out’s a little harder to do’ that just about says it all…like so many great, socially conscious song writers from the past, no matter where they're from, joel plaskett reminds us to enjoy and celebrate what we have created. happy canada day, and true patriot love.”

Oh my love what have you done
You sold yourself to another one
And in the back of a big black car
The chances are things went too far
The chances are things went too far

Oh my love where have you gone
Into the arms of another one
Nothing I could do could make you stay
Got carried along, got carried away
Got carried along and away

We all go out
Then we all come home
But I fall asleep with the TV on
At 3 AM they play "O Canada"
True patriot love and lalalalala
True patriot love and lalalalala

Oh my love what shall I do
When I think of you
Do you think of me too
You're saying my name
But it sounds all wrong
You wanna be loved
I just wanna belong
I wanna believe I belong

We all go out
Then we all come home
But I fall asleep with the TV on
At 3 AM oh say can you see
The dawn's early light has taken you from me
The dawn's early light has taken you from me

And we raise the white flag
So they can paint it red and blue
Getting into bed seemed easy enough
Getting out's a little harder to do

Oh my love go back to the beginning
You're like a broken record
But the record's still spinning
Nothing I could do could make you play
Got carried along
Got carried away
Got carried along and away

We all go out
Then we all come home
But I fall asleep with the TV on
At 3 AM they play "O Canada"
True patriot love and lalalalala
True patriot love and lalalalala
True patriot love and lalalalala
True patriot love

aisling's last hurrah

2007-06-24T14:44:00.000+02:00

am i too anal?!?

2007-06-24T13:49:00.000+02:00

i know i'm a bit of a neat freak. my roommate readily admits she is not. i really like my roommate, but this cleanliness issue has caused some problems. for example, i'm grossed out when i take a glass out of the cupboard and there is still lip gloss on it. or when i take a fork out of the drawer and there are bits of food stuck to it. kinda gross, non? dirty dishes in the cupboard make me shake my head and force me to wash more than my fair share of dishes, but dirty bathrooms are another issue. when the bathroom in my own home, in which i am supposed to wash myself, is dirty, i can't handle it.
this is the story of thursday night:
my roommate had plans to go out. she was in the middle of her two hour long get ready session in the bathroom when i left to go watch a movie. when i came home a few hours later, i was faced - and not for the first time - with the aftermath of her marathon get ready session. it was disgusting. DISGUSTING. see pictures 1 and 2. that's our shower. our shower! where you're supposed to get clean and feel refreshed after stepping out!
thing is, it's not the first time it has looked like this. the last time was the night i got home from that nightmare of a vacation in turkey. i had been up for over 20 hours, and that after a week of feeling like i was dying and being too tired to walk any further than to the bathroom. not exactly in top form. i almost cried when i arrived at my front door, thinking the nightmare was over and things would be better at home. then i think i did cry when i walked into the bathroom and realised it was filthier than the hostel bathroom shared by like 200 girls. it looked just like the pics from thursday night. i cleaned the shower the second i saw it because i couldn't imagine leaving it the way it was.
but i am not my roommates mother or housekeeper. and on thursday, i was too mad to clean up after her again. so i left her a note saying she had to clean the shower. it wasn't a long, nasty note or anything. i simply said (it was definitely not a request and i didn't say please) she had to clean the shower because i didn't want to clean up after other people.
picture 3 is what i woke up to the next morning. i'm sorry, who on earth would call that clean?!? slightly less repulsive than it was the night before, but if you hadn't seen it the night before and walked into a shower looking like that, would you consider that clean? or would you still want to throw up? i think the neat freak in me is going to throw a violent temper tantrum if faced with a scene like this again.

kellers and canadians

2007-06-19T14:40:00.000+02:00

some peg city kids visit, so natuerlich some dutch blitz was played and kellers visited

spezi round I

spezi round II

multicultural good times: irish, german, cdn

i <3 winnipeggers

studenttunes

2007-06-16T13:45:00.001+02:00

the lovely ms doughan is visiting bamberg, and such a visit just wouldn't be complete without at least one dj cri party. this time it was studenttunes with ze germans. a little vorgluehen at philipp's and eventually the realisation that the rain just won't stop, so umbrella-less we walk to morph club. upon our arrival, aisling wasted no time requesting the song she'd been singing the whole way there - you guessed it: umbrella. good times had by all.

aww, so sad to leave the party...

silvia!!!

2007-06-11T14:28:00.000+02:00

ganz spontan ist silvia nach bamberg gekommen, so a visit to the wilde rose keller for a little brotzeit was in order. a lovely visit with my favourite swiss miss.

she was feeling just a litte shy...

silvia & katharina

worst morning ever

2007-06-11T14:10:00.000+02:00

turkish locals hounding tourists to come into their shops and restaurants instantly brought me back to my days in the middle east. i'm pretty good at ignoring all of that, but by the last morning i was getting a wee bit sick of it all. in case any of you ever thought i was a morning person, here's a little story about what i'm like before my morning coffee:
i pretty much like to be left alone for about an hour after i wake up. don't talk to me, don't ask me questions, don't tell me any stories, and please don't tell me any bad news. i will snap at you and probably be incredibly unsympathetic. wait an hour, let me drink a latte, and i'm much less bear and much more person.
so, on the morning shawn and i were meant to fly from istanbul to olympos, the man at hostel informs me mere minutes after waking up that the airport shuttle decided it wouldn't be running on this particular day. pretty annoying. i ask him how we're supposed to get to the airport and he tells me there are no other options for getting to the airport. um, what? NO other options?! right, just one shuttle that, if the driver feels like working that day, takes tourists to the airport?! i refused to believe that and stood there telling him there had to be other options. and i wasn't exactly telling him nicely since he decided to tell me this before my hour of leave me alone time and coffee. hostel man insisted, no, no other options. that went on for like 5 minutes - all the while shawn was awkwardly standing next to me quiet as a mouse, not sure how to handle the ang + morning + bad news combo. after a while, he eventually told me about the bus that runs to the airport. silly me would have considered that another option, but what do i know?!
so i'm already annoyed, still coffee-less, and then we're told we would have to buy new tickets from olympos to istanbul for our return flight! apparently we were flying into some out in the middle of nowhere airport and if we didn't buy new tickets, we would miss our connection back to germany. more bad news. still no coffee.
i cannot deal with this problem until i get some latte-therapy, so molly, shawn and i decide to hit up starbucks. off we go and we're about half way there when some guy stands right in front of me (yes, while i was trying to WALK) and repeatedly asks shawn "which one is your girlfriend? which one is your girlfriend?" ok, i'm trying to walk. i have had a bad, bad morning, i'm sick of people hounding tourists, and i'm especially not happy about some jerk and his annoying comments standing in way of the beeline i'm making towards starbucks. unhappy and growing more annoyed by the millisecond, i ignore him. he doesn't stop with his questions. he continues to try and block my way, getting in my face with his stupid question. i could handle no more. i am not a violent person and i rarely tell someone to shut up. but this was just too much for one morning. on this particular morning at this particular time i pushed a perfect stranger in the street and hold him to shut up. i still can't believe i did that.
but this guy just could not leave it alone. he then proceeds to follow us, yelling some warning or who knows what after me that i can get married 5 times and i will always be unhappy. he seriously followed us for like 200 metres, all the while yelling at me - a perfect stranger - that i can get married 5 times and will always be unhappy! simply because someone finally made it clear to him how stinking annoying he is! clearly he didn't hear me when i told him to shut up.
it was a triple espresso venti latte that morning.

turkey

2007-06-11T13:39:00.000+02:00

turkey started off like any other adventure: trains, airports, foreign sights and sounds etc. turkey turned into the kind of vacation you never want to have: visits to non-english speaking doctors, hospitals, stomach virus, food poisoning...you get the idea. not good.
but before it all went wrong, molly, tara, shawn and i did a little exploring, shopping, and turkish bathing in istanbul! in typical tourist style, we visited the grand bazaar, blue mosque, hagia sophia etc. also had a lovely evening with fellow peg city girl, leah, and her history loving boyfriend, ovunc.
i spent 5 out of our 6 days at the beach feeling like death in bed, so not too many pics of olympos. i'm posting almost every picture i took in turkey.

some ruins near the beach at olympos

slideshow

the amis and aussies party.
3 representatives from each country, 2 bottles of wine, and 2 bottles of vodka.
and i was the one puking all night. it's not right.

by the last day in olympos i had enough energy to change out of my pjs. then i walked to a couch where i could sit like this until i was too tired to do even that and went back to bed.

our tree house accommodation in olympos

bergkirchweih

2007-05-27T16:51:00.000+02:00

thought we'd enjoy the long weekend with a little volkfest, so off to erlangen we went. the size of food and drinks at a bavarian volksfest meant that there was a lot of sharing going on, along with little dancing.

good to the last drop, hey amanda?

lauren tells us stories about her crush...

die alte generation visits

2007-05-24T09:17:00.000+02:00

first it was rob and the lovely anika, next the fiery, spezi keller loving sarah. die alte generation = die beste. also in the post - evidence of germany's need for air conditioning.

okay, so i turn on my camera inside live club, and this is what happens. lens gets all foggy so that it looks like we're in a hazy dry ice cloud or something. no, no dry ice, it's just that disgustingly hot. the only other time my camera lens got all foggy like that was when i was in the RAIN FOREST in brazil!

adam bustin' some of his moves

christoph's *gasp* unglaublich! face?

jenny and erinn do the pointer finger dance

deer in headlights meets sweaty, really into the music guy

some cute guys insisted i take their picture...

treat your ears to a little of this:

2007-05-12T19:32:00.001+02:00

click here for her website and here for her myspace page
my picks: 1234, the park, so sorry

family history lesson

2007-05-12T19:12:00.000+02:00

my dad's half-brother, walter, immigrated to germany from russia about ten years ago. it was around the same time that, much to our surprise, we first learned my dad had a half-brother.
i met walter and his wife, valentina, the first time i was in germany nine years ago. at that time, they could only speak russian. seeing as my russian consists of the phrase "i don't understand russian" and a four line russian-german poem about butter churns that my opa taught me, communication was a bit of a problem. but nine years on, we now have one language in common.
mom and i had sunday lunch with the fam and learned a little more about the lives of these relatives who, in all honesty, are more like strangers. having this little branch of the family tree half way around the world is kind of strange considering the rest of my dad's enormous family all live within five minutes of my parent's house (this is no small feat considering the family is so extended that we rent out community halls for family gatherings. seriously, it's ridiculous). being slightly obsessed with history and determined to learn more about my family history, i loved getting to know walter and his family and hearing a bit of their story. here are some pics of our little history lesson.

opa walter and daniel put names to the faces

valentina and julia

adorable daniel

mama julia and violetta

father and son
er, yeah, i have no idea how to spell dad's very russian sounding name...

mama thiessen in bamberg

2007-05-10T21:14:00.000+02:00

unfortunately i had to work almost the entire time mama thiessen was in bamberg, but here are some pics of our sunday morning walk up to michaelsberg.

every time i think about michaelsberg, i think about seeing this inside the church and i don't get it. what's with all the skeletons and skulls and crossbones?

santorini

2007-05-09T14:03:00.000+02:00

holiday!!!

2007-05-08T07:26:00.000+02:00

yup, greece. mom and i went to greece! saw lots of old stuff and got really dusty feet, a bee sting and a sunburn in athens, then jetted off to santorini island to work on our tans a little more. here are some pictures of athens:

see that woman there in the middle? she was standing there talking on her cell for ages and annoying the crap out of me for being in all my pictures

mom the tourist. i think this pic is hilarious

this was near the end of a long, hot day. i was sunburnt, tired, dirty and in desperate need of caffeine, hence the really fake smile

mama thiessen's visit pt II

2007-05-05T22:26:00.000+02:00

with it's cute little ampelmaenner and history galore, mom and i headed to the german capital on our next weekend adventure. we watched a german movie in a tiny theatre near alex platz, hopped on a boat ride along the spree river, sat in echte east german movie theatre seats in the gdr museum, learned about east german escape attempts in the checkpoint charlie museum, ate some currywurst, drank lots of starbucks, etc etc. was a little camera happy, so here are some of the goods for you.

meat-eating mama thiessen about to go in for the kill. mmm, berliner currywurst

our weekend was once again filled with trips to starbucks. delightful

a little taste of home...so beautiful

i'm one happy kid in that trabi

the legendary studenttunes

2007-04-30T18:12:00.000+02:00

the clemson girls chillin on the roof

shawn & jenny together again

aww, look at those lovely canucks!

mom's visit pt I

2007-04-23T08:31:00.000+02:00

back to the lovely city of munich! lots of walking, lots of shopping, lots of coffee, a little ferris wheel and brass band in the beer tent, some hearty brewery food, a couple of beer steins full of weinschorle, a couple of walks in the park, and a little art. my tour guide services were rewarded in form of some cute new additions to my summer wardrobe on our shopping spree:) it was a good weekend.

like a good daughter, i took mom to hofbräuhaus

the 'hi, i'm a tourist!' pic

munich from the ferris wheel

mama thiessen enjoying her brezel and o-saftschorle

umm, surfing in munich. yeah...

oh, how i love a little klimt

olympiapark

look at these happy students

2007-04-23T08:04:00.000+02:00

lagos

2007-04-13T21:08:00.000+02:00

oh, lagos...it could not have been better.
the pictures don't do it justice.

the beach we lazed around on for five days

boat trip to the grottos

poor shawn needs a little help getting rid of his hiccups!

sintra

2007-04-13T20:29:00.000+02:00

took a train ride to sintra one afternoon. go there if you want to spend some time in a picturesque little town swarming with tourists.

lisboa: olha-me bem

2007-04-13T20:15:00.000+02:00

cristo rei, a replica of rio's cristo redentor, in the background

que lindo

castelo do sao jorge

view of lisbon from the castle wall

the cathedral

portugal

2007-04-13T19:07:00.000+02:00

i am in love with portugal. not the i want to vacation there every year kind of love, but the i want to move there kind of love. it's like brazil, but european. and that's good. really good. lotsa pictures of our couple of days in lisbon and six days on the beaches of lagos to follow.

queue the violins

2007-04-01T13:12:00.001+02:00

i'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. i feel like i've been sick for pretty much a year and a half and i don't get it. i think i'm finally getting better, and then it gets worse. if it's the different bacteria or viruses or whatever here, shouldn't i be used to them by now? i'm losing my voice (not good for teaching), i'm about to cough up a lung (not good in general), my head and face hurt, and when i get up to get a drink, everything just aches. i lay on my couch watching movies with my mouth hanging open so i can breathe. and then the movie ends and i have no idea what it was even about *sigh* okay, i'll end this little pity post now. bet you're all glad i shared.

i'll just add one more completely unrelated thing that i forgot to mention in the last post: last thursday and calis they played the beach boys and the mamas & the papas! moni and chris, i thought of you and our awesome dance routines!!! so much fun.

donnerstag = cocktails + calis

2007-03-30T17:31:00.000+02:00

ms amanda turns 24

first stop: boleros for some spanish-style eats

second stop: palais schrottenberg cocktail abend

third stop: calis for some booty-shakin good times

i think kyle really likes me...

there they are up on the window sill again

galway!!!

2007-03-26T18:57:00.000+02:00

yeah that's right he's drinking a moosehead!
go canada go

roomie plays us a little tune on her flute

like, i mean, like totally go gamecocks

wow. sarah looks mini, shawn looks 3d, and i look giant

could you please open your eyes next time shawn?

can't wait till may ms sarah!

inis mor

2007-03-26T18:31:00.000+02:00

another few buses missed but we eventually made it somewhere. and somewhere was inis mor, one of the aran islands. could've spent all day on those cliffs...

good times in tipperary

2007-03-26T18:05:00.000+02:00

oh so much fun was had with the doughan family (2 parents, 6 kids, 2 dogs, 2 cats, 2 goldfish, a walter + 3 house guests!) in tipperary. we ate too much, missed a few buses, feared for our lives speeding down winding country roads, and learned a thing or two about irish life and humour. danke danke danke to the doughan family for everything!

me and aisling and mr doughan

taking a little walk through the countryside

we visit the gaelic athletic assosiation museum

me with the kinda creepy looking hurling team

dublin

2007-03-26T17:45:00.000+02:00

st. patrick's cathedral

dublin castle

the multi-tasking tourist: taking a picture,
holding his starbucks, and posing for another pic

trinity college

look what i found!!! who knew timmy's was taking over the world

river liffey

wow he is really enjoying that guiness

st. pat's

2007-03-18T14:17:00.000+01:00

a few of us that have called bamberg home for a while took some of the newbies on a starbucks/shopping/sightseeing tour of nürnberg this weekend. starbucks is always good, and you can't go wrong with 3x the h&ms that bamberg has. and the castle, well, definitely hübscher in the summertime. st. pat's on saturday night once again brought us to the irish pub for some live music and green beer for those that fancied it. songs were sung, door prizes won, and shawn and i left oh so excited to board that plane to ireland on tuesday!

oh oh, loook! it's another CANADIAN!!!

and not just any canadian, ms amanda all the way from
the best part of winnipeg - north kildonan!

flashback

2007-03-16T15:14:00.000+01:00

i have the coolest friends EVER

notice the little hand about to grab a fistful of cake?

oh, the #1...

pigtails and pudgy arms...adorable

backyards and boys with hockey sticks...*sigh*

big sis and kleiner bruder. with matching headbands

cutie's mouth has got a few more gaps in it now :)

the sound is not asleep

2007-03-13T12:10:00.001+01:00

so many good songs i just can't decide...think i'll go with the one that was love at first listen.

INTERVENTION
The king's taken back the throne
The useless seed is sown
When they say they're cutting off the phone
I tell 'em we're not home

No place to hide
You were fighting as a soldier on their side
You're still a soldier in your mind
Though nothing is on the line

You say it's money that we need
As if we're only mouths to feed
I know no matter what you say
There are some debts you'll never pay

Working for the Church while your family dies
You take what they give you and you keep it inside
Ever spark of friendship and love will die without a home
Hear the solider groan, "We'll go at it alone"

I can taste the fear
Lift me up and take me out of here
Don't wanna fight, don't wanna die
Just wanna hear you cry

Who's gonna throw the very first stone?
Oh! Who's gonna reset the bone?
Walking with your head in a sling
Wanna hear the solider sing:
"Been working for the Church while my family dies
Your little baby sister's gonna lose her mind
Every spark of friendship and love will die without a home"
Hear the soldier groan "We'll go at it alone."

I can taste your fear
It's gonna lift you up and take you out of here
And the bone shall never heal
I care not if you kneel

We can't find you now
But they're gonna get the money back somehow
And when you finally disappear
We'll just say you were never here

Working for the church while your life falls apart
Singing hallelujah with the fear in your heart
Every spark of friendship and love will die without a home
Hear the solider groan, "We'll go at it alone"
Hear the solider groan, "We'll go at it alone"

oh i just love the arcade fire

st. pat's prep

2007-03-13T11:57:00.000+01:00

we head to the irish pub. here's to hoping the pubs in galway and limerick and tipperay aren't filled with drunk american soldiers like they are in bamberg.

some more good times

2007-03-10T13:38:00.000+01:00

saving our pennies for portugal etc = we've found inexpensive (read: free) means to entertain ourselves. mostly involving movies and uno. yeah, that's right, uno! flashbacks to kasdorf family gatherings like 15 years ago... ahh, i love card games. though i don't really love the new rules shawn makes up every time we play (yeah, you really need to work on that shawn). think mama thiessen needs to bring over a deck of dutch blitz cards when she comes. seriously, why has no one outside of winnipeg ever heard of dutch blitz??? blitz-less childhoods, how sad...anyways, here are some recent pics for you.

wow, those are some happy kids...

yeah, that's calis. and yeah, you know where they're dancing...

neon bible

2007-03-08T19:14:00.000+01:00

here is another hot new album for you:

it's called neon bible and is brought to you by the cool kids in the arcade fire.
my picks: intervention, (antichrist television blues), and windowsill. so good.

and then there were three...

2007-02-28T16:49:00.000+01:00

liebe liebe lotte,
wir werden dich so vermissen. komm bald und öfters zu besuch!!!
xXx

the last supper/lotte gets herself her very own belgian flag

fässla stube, aka the place with the schlechteste luft in all of bamberg

brave mädchen kommen in den himmel,
diese mädchen kommen überall hin ;)

calculus & kicker

2007-02-24T15:31:00.000+01:00

i've posted the lyrics to a couple of my favourite songs lately. here's a little excerpt from one that won't be making the list:

I know my calculus
It says you + me = us together

sound pretty terrible? indeed. well, ms wojtowicz not only has that little ditty in her iTunes library, she also knows the actions! she kept us all entertained as she argued the merits of 2ge+her and o-town (who she's seen in concert more than once). but one can only handle so much good music in a night, so we decided to give priscilla's laptop a little rest and have ourselves a little kicker tournier.

oh, how i love the do-it-yourself shot

it's not just a game to the italians

heaven when we're home

2007-02-23T14:08:00.000+01:00

here's another one of my favourites:

Don't know what time it is, I've been up for way too long
and I'm too tired to sleep
Called my mother on the phone, she wasn't home
and now I'm wandering the street
I've been a fool, I've been cruel to myself
I've been hanging on to nothing
When nothing could be worse than hanging on
And something tells me that there must be
something better than all this

I've fallen many times in love and every time
it's been with the wrong man
Still I'm out there living one day at a time
and doing the best I can
Cause we've all made mistakes
that seem to lead us astray
But every time they helped to get us where we are today
And that's as good a place as any
and it's probably where were best off anyway

It's a long and rugged road
and we don't know where it's headed
But we know it's going to get us where we're going
And when we find what we're looking for
we'll drop these bags and search no more
Cause it's going to feel like heaven when we're home
It's going to feel like heaven when we're home

There's no such thing as perfect,
and if there is we'll find it when we're good and dead
Trust me I've been looking
but tonight I think I'll go and take a bath instead
And then maybe I'll walk a while
and feel the earth beneath me
They say if you stop looking
it doesn't matter if you find it
And who's to say that even if I did
it's what I'm really looking for

It's a long and rugged road
And we don't know where it's headed
But we know it's going to get us where we're going
And when we find what we're looking for
We'll drop these bags and search no more
Cause it's going to feel like heaven when we're home
It's going to feel like heaven when we're home

click here for more

i'm so happy i could cry

2007-02-16T12:00:00.000+01:00

the sun is shining! THE SUN IS SHINING!!!!!! i was blinded when i walked into my kitchen this morning and the floor was warm from the sun shining down on it. i stood there genießing it for a minute, hoping it wasn't just a momentary break in the clouds. i sat down at my desk and tried to get some work done, but have decided that i should just go outside and stay there until the sun sets to make up for lost time.

spoonful of sugar

2007-02-15T21:47:00.000+01:00

matt mays is my favourite. every time i hear this song, i fall in love with it all over again. same goes for about half the album. i can't believe i missed the tour...

Spoonful of sugar in Montreal city
When the leaves are dying and look so pretty
At home the ships are on the rocks and sinking
And as hard as we try we just can’t stop thinking

Dirt in my fist, roots on my sleeves
This year the trees fell before the leaves
People like me like people like you
Cause people like you are far too few

Oh, the night, daylight’s got nothing on you
Nothing’s everlasting when you’re always just passing through

Earful of music just when I need it
Your soul won’t sing unless you bleed it
Looking for answers through the night hour window
Million miles an hour through the wind and snow

Spoonful of sugar in Montreal city
When the leaves are dying and look so pretty
Nothing can cure the homesick disease
This fall the trees fell before the leaves

Nothing can cure this homesick disease
This fall the trees fell before the leaves
This fall the trees fell before the leaves
This fall the trees fell before the leaves

Spoonful of sugar in Montreal city

i've said it before and i'll say it again: buy the album

all the cool kids are doing it

2007-02-15T21:24:00.000+01:00

we get ourselves acquainted with turkish culture in preparation for the trip we're oh so excited about

awwww

2007-02-11T21:12:00.000+01:00

studenttunes & college culture

2007-02-10T18:02:00.000+01:00

with finals written and scheins in hand, the amis could wait no more. they missed their drinking games. so, after a semester of talking about them, they decided to teach the uncultured non-amis how to play beer pong and flip cup. there was no doubt that their experience proved beneficial to them as they won every single game of beer pong. but flip cup was another story. the "europeans" (the amis couldn't handle a canuck on their team, so they decided being canadian is really more like being european than american) left the drinking game profis in the dust. but good times were had by all and it was off to morph to show the world our moves on the dancefloor.

shawn made every one of the six cups in one game.
i think he's played before

aneta in all her cuteness

priscilla & katie

my teammate extraordinaire, ms pauline clerkin

katrina & romina

king pong

thomas, my other teammate

dan briefly graces us with his presence

came back into the room to this. dunno...

everybody <3s morph club

i told you she was cute

go commonwealth

me and my gang

2007-02-04T11:12:00.000+01:00

we spent the evening bringing out our creative sides. here are the goods, and evidence of the inability of some to put iron-on letters onto t-shirts correctly :p but whatever, it just makes them funnier. i got the letters right, but got a bit of a shock when the iron made my t-shirt change colours. the iron-induced purple eventually changed back to pink, and in the end we left with six sweet shirts that i'm sure will be the hottest thing this season. i think we might go into business. gotta pay for all these trips we booked somehow!

ski trip revisited

2007-02-04T02:15:00.001+01:00

courtesy of priscilla, who shot these pics of our adventures with €2 bottles of wine, their synthetic corks, and the fun we had trying to open them with a broken corkscrew.

had to take a little laugh pause
to try and get it out of my system and regain my strength

with that intense look of concentration on shawn's face,
we must be close to getting that bottle open

oh, and open it we did.
we also both managed to fall.
and spill half the bottle of wine.

good times, good times...

midnight updates

2007-02-04T01:36:00.001+01:00

i'm feeling not the least bit tired and roomie's nowhere in sight, so i turned up pilot sound and am uploading some recent pics for you to feast your eyes on.

das leben genießen

2007-01-23T14:33:00.000+01:00

UPDATE: february and march just seemed so boring with nowhere to go, so....

still trying to nail down our exact destination for february, but
IRELAND in march!

trips booked:

PORTUGAL in april
GREECE in may
TURKEY in june

ang is broke but happy!

garmisch-partenkirchen

2007-01-22T20:59:00.000+01:00

neuschwanstein

2007-01-22T20:55:00.000+01:00

saturday was supposed to be our big day for skiing. well, sunshine and ridiculously high temps led us to trade in our lift tickets for a day of castles and hiking. jenny also turned 21 that day, so our evening included a little surprise party in the penthouse of our gasthaus and a group karaoke session. leider keine fotos of the evening as i was not in a camera carrying mood, but you may have better luck if you check out priscilla or molly's blogs.

hurricane lockdown

2007-01-22T20:53:00.000+01:00

what do you do when you're on a ski trip and there's a hurricane watch? well, you get comfy in your favourite hoodie, pull out the rummy cards, and drink some wine to forget your troubles!

gimme a blizzard over this any day

2007-01-18T20:33:00.000+01:00

so, i'm supposed to be going on a ski trip tomorrow to a place where there's no snow, and there's some sort of hurricane watch for germany. hurricane?!? in germany??!! german weather sucks. it's january, and outside it's like 15 degrees, raining, and the wind is howling. i am so sick of rain it's not even funny.

and if any of you winnipeggers complained about the weather you had last week, trust me, snow covered everything and -50 is better than this.

electro dance party

2007-01-15T19:40:00.000+01:00

what a night it was. it started off with dinner italian-style and ended with us watching real-live chase scenes and being accosted by some poor soul who had unfortunately lost all his clothes. in between, someone tried to make the COE dorm feel like a four-story club with different music on each level. not sure it worked, but as you will see, the elektro room was where it was at.

the party cup reemerges from the depths of priscilla's cupboards

who needs a glass to drink out of anyway???

we were definitely the coolest kids at the electro party...

shawn bustin some of his sweet moves

money well spent

2007-01-11T11:04:00.000+01:00

you should buy it.

winter wonderland

2006-12-31T17:28:00.000+01:00

it finally snowed. i mean really snowed. like snowbanks taller than me, city streets became snowmobile trails, and the whole city had to dig itself out snowed. i found my sorels, went out with camera in hand and was passed by kleiner bruder chris on his snowmobile. then i came home to watch team canada beat slovakia 3-0 at the world juniors, followed by a little figure skating. oh man, do i love winter in canada.

bina turns four

2006-12-31T16:33:00.000+01:00

winter wedding

2006-12-31T15:53:00.000+01:00

stained glass and candles inside st. margaret's on a wintry night, fire dancers in the snow outside fort gibraltar, medievel dancers attempting to teach 100 people a group dance in front of the fire place, good wine, good company, great wedding. congratulations jen and mark!

christmas

2006-12-27T16:01:00.000+01:00

moni & mike
mama thiessen

best gift idea for a 23 year old boy? apparently it's a lazy susan
awww, matching aprons!

opa in his story-telling chair
chris & danielle
oma keeping a close watch on her brood
turkey makes a boy tired
this prairie girl can't get enough of northern manitoba

m is for maple - the canadian alphabet. i think i need that book

chanel's toothless toothy grin
the braun girls put on a puppet show
we weren't allowed to leave without taking a family pic

winter the way it should be

2006-12-18T02:34:00.000+01:00

white. icy. cold. windchills. frostbite. toques. parkas. sorels. i almost cried when we were landing in winnipeg and i could see the assiniboine river was frozen and covered in snow, just like every rooftop in the city. saw kids playing games of shinny on every outdoor rink we past and it warmed my heart like you wouldn't believe. i quickly remembered what it's like to walk and drive on ice and got laughed at by mom when i went out in my parka and it was only like -10. it worries me a bit that this canuck has become so soft that she can't even take -18 windchills anymore - i've already gotten frostbite twice! but i won't let a little frostbite stop me from enjoying a real winter. i'm off to go play in the snow.

in four days

2006-12-10T14:39:00.000+01:00

i'll see snow instead of rain. i'll get to wear a parka. i'll get to drive. i'll get to watch the hour on tv rather than a monitor. i'll get to sleep in. i'll finally have a day off. i'll see all the good people i've been missing. and i'll probably start missing all the good people i've left behind.

let's conspire

2006-12-10T14:19:00.001+01:00

to ignite

all the souls

that would

die
just to feel
alive